Fleetwood Town F.C.

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Fleetwood Town

Full name	Fleetwood Town Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Fishermen, The Fleet, Cod Army
Founded	1908 as Fleetwood (Reformed in 1997)
Ground	Highbury Stadium, Fleetwood (Capacity: 3,663[1])
Chairman	Andy Pilley
Manager	Micky Mellon
League	Conference North
2008–09	Conference North, 8th
Home colours Away colours

Fleetwood Town F.C. is an English football club based in Fleetwood, Lancashire, currently playing in the Conference North, the sixth tier of the English league system. Three promotions in four seasons saw them attain this level at the end of the 2007-08 season.

Contents 1 History 2 Reserves, youth and juniors teams 3 Highbury Stadium 4 Current squad 4.1 Out on loan 5 Management 6 Supporters 7 Honours 7.1 1997 foundation 7.2 1976 foundation 7.3 1908 foundation 8 Records 8.1 Attendances 8.1.1 Averages 9 Notable former players 10 References 11 External links

[edit] History

The current club was officially established in 1997 but, in two previous incarnations, the club's history dates back to 1908. The original club, Fleetwood F.C., were champions of the Lancashire Combination in 1923-24, and registered a hat-trick of Lancashire Combination Cup wins in 1932, 1933, and 1934. Their goalkeeper in the first of those victories was the legendary Frank Swift, then only eighteen years old. After almost sixty years as a Lancashire Combination club, they were made founder members of the Northern Premier League in 1968, finishing in 10th place in their first season, and won the Northern Premier League Cup in 1971. However, the club finished bottom of the table for two successive seasons and folded in 1976 because of financial difficulties.

The club was re-established in 1977 as Fleetwood Town F.C., with many of the original personnel. Initially placed in Division One of the Cheshire League, they were moved in 1982 to the North West Counties League Division Two in its inaugural year, and promoted to Division One in 1984. They reached the final of the FA Vase in 1985, losing 3-1 to Halesowen Town in front of a 16,000 crowd at Wembley. The club was placed in Division One (second tier) of the Northern Premier league when the league established a second tier in 1987, becoming the inaugural Division One Champions in 1988. However, by 1996, this second club had also folded.

Re-formed in 1997 as Fleetwood Wanderers, the club was placed back in Division Two of the North West Counties Football League (now the tenth tier of the English League system) and a sponsorship deal saw the club's name immediately changed to Fleetwood Freeport F.C. The club was promoted to Division One in 1999 and renamed Fleetwood Town F.C. in 2002. Tony Greenwood was appointed manager in 2003, and soon afterward, Andy Pilley took over as chairman. Successive promotions as North West Counties Football League champions in 2005 and Northern Premier League First Division runners-up in 2006 saw the club reach the Northern Premier League Premier Division.

In the 2006–07 season Fleetwood Town won the UniBond League Challenge Cup beating Matlock Town 1-0 at Witton Albion's ground on 16 April 2007. They missed out on reaching the play-offs for the Northern Premier League Premier Division by five points, after being two points behind the play-offs with two games left to play only to lose the last two games of the season. They finished the season in 8th place with 67 points.

In 2007–08, the club continued its successful run, and from November to April lay second in the division, trailing only long-time leaders Witton Albion. Two goals in the last three minutes to defeat Ossett Town on 1 March began a series of two draws and eleven victories (including a 3-0 win at Witton) leaving Fleetwood one point ahead of Witton going into the last game of the season on 26 April. A Northern Premier League Premier Division season record crowd^[2] of 2,666 saw Fleetwood struggle to a 1-1 draw with Frickley Athletic but Witton were defeated at home, thus securing the Championship for Fleetwood. The club gained automatic promotion to the Conference North. Fleetwood were by some way the best-supported club in the Premier Division, their average home gate of 721 being 50% higher than that of the next club, Witton Albion.^[3]

A poor start to the 2008-09 Blue Square North campaign saw the club rooted to the bottom of the league, with only five points from their first nine matches. After the 3-1 defeat at home to struggling Hucknall Town on 16 September 2008, the club sacked manager Tony Greenwood along with his assistant, Nigel Greenwood and coach Andy Whittaker.^[4] After a single match under the club's former physiotherapist Steve Macauley, chairman Andy Pilley appointed the Burnley youth team coach and former Blackpool midfielder Micky Mellon as manager on 23 September. Macauley was later named as his assistant. Mellon at first divided his time between coaching the Under-15 and Under-16 teams at Burnley and managing Fleetwood.^[5], but on 12 January 2009, his position was made full-time, a first in the history of the club.^[6] A successful F.A. Cup run followed, with a 4-3 defeat of Nantwich Town in the Fourth qualifying round^[7] taking them to the First Round Proper for the sixth time in their history. In the First Round, Fleetwood defeated Eastern Counties League Premier Division club Leiston 2-0 on 18 November, after a 0-0 draw at Leiston.^[8] Playing in the Second Round for the first time in their history, on 29 November, Fleetwood's cup run ended with a 3-2 defeat by Hartlepool United at Highbury, in front of a record crowd of 3,280.

Mellon introduced a number of new faces to the playing staff, and over the course of the season produced a settled team with increasingly improving league results. Home form was particularly strong, and included a series of six consecutive victories. Home support was also strong, with nine home games attracting crowds of over 1,000, and a season average of 920 being the third best in the Conference North.^[9]. A 3-1 victory at Droylsden on the last day of the season saw the team finish in eighth place overall, thereby securing the highest position in the club's history since the 1997 re-establishment. (The original Fleetwood F.C. had finished 10th in the Northern Premier league in 1968-69, when the NPL was one of several leagues immediately below Division Four of the Football League, and therefore effectively the fifth tier. In 1990-91 the second incarnation of the club finished 4th in the NPL Premier Division, then effectively the sixth tier.)^[10]

[edit] Reserves, youth and juniors teams

Fleetwood Town have a reserve team in the Lancashire League, as well as youth and junior teams. The reserves were runaway winners of the 2008-09 Lancashire League West Division, having only dropped 9 points over a 20-match season.^[11]

In March 2007 it was announced that the football section of Fleetwood Gym would leave the club and join Fleetwood Town at the end of the 2006-07 season, to create the Fleetwood Town Football Academy, with teams ranging from Under-7s to Under-18s. Club chairman Andy Pilley said, "I am thrilled to welcome the Fleetwood Gym Football Section to the club. We have long aspired to have our own Academy and we look forward to the day when academy products make the breakthrough to first-team level. "^[12]

[edit] Highbury Stadium

The original 1908 club played on a pitch next to the North Euston Hotel, where the police station now stands. Apart from two years after World War I when the club played on a temporary ground behind the Queen's Hotel on Poulton Road, they remained at the Euston ground until moving to the present ground next to the Memorial Park in 1934.

In February 2007 the new Percy Ronson Stand was opened. A £500,000-plus development the stand is all terracing. Originally stated to have a capacity of 1240, this has since been revised downwards by Lancashire County Council to 621.^[1] In July 2007, further plans for the stadium development were announced which included three new stands. The plans were finalized in December 2007 and in March 2008, planning permission was given for the first phase, construction of the north and west stands. Construction began in May 2008, and the new West Stand, with 550 seats togther with disabled and press facilities and the new North Stand, a terraced stand with an official capacity of 1473^[1] were opened for Fleetwood's first home game of the 2008-09 season, on 22 August 2008. A new Football League standard floodlight system and perimeter fencing were also installed. The second phase development, the construction of a new East Stand, to bring the ground capacity over the 4000 minimum required for Conference National football, was originally scheduled for the 2009 close season, but has been postponed, and a £125,000 project to re-lay the pitch and improve drainage was instead begun on 21 April 2009.^[13]

[edit] Current squad

As of 14 May 2009.^[14]

No. Position Player — GK Daniel Hurst — DF Shaun Beeley — DF Steve McNulty — DF Ryan Elderton — DF Michael Taylor — DF Richard Mercer — DF Ashley Wooliscroft — DF John Hills — MF Lee Dodgson — MF Jamie McGuire — MF Kevin Leadbetter — MF Christopher Williams — MF James Mullan — MF Steven Connors — MF Sean Clancy — MF Nathan Pond — MF Jamie Milligan — FW Andrew Bell — FW Adam Warlow — FW Michael Wilde — FW Nick Rogan

[edit] Out on loan

No. Position Player — DF Phillip Doughty |=atA.F.C.Fylde}}

[edit] Management

Position	Name	Nation
Team Manager/Director of Youth	Micky Mellon
Assistant Manager	Steve Macauley
Goalkeeping Coach	Eric Nixon
Head Physio	Russ Hitchen
Physio	Danny Moore
Reserve Team Manager	Steve Edwards
U18's Youth Team Manager	Mike Sumner

[edit] Supporters

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Fans refer to each other as "Woodies" or "Macs", the latter due to a pun on the rock group Fleetwood Mac,^{[citation needed]} although they are currently known as the "Cod Army", reflecting the town's history as a deep-sea fishing port.

[edit] Honours

[edit] 1997 foundation

• Lancashire Lancit Haulage League West Division Reserve League
  • Winners 2009

• Peter Swales Memorial Shield
  • Winners 2008

• Northern Premier League Premier Division
  • Champions: 2008

• Northern Premier League Challenge Cup
  • Winners: 2007

• Northern Premier League First Division
  • Runners-up: 2006 (promoted)

• North West Counties League Division One
  • Champions: 2005

• North West Counties League Division Two
  • Champions: 1999

• North West Counties Football League Division Two Cup
  • Winners: 1999

[edit] 1976 foundation

• Northern Premier League First Division
  • Champions: 1988

• Northern Premier League Challenge Cup
  • Runners-up: 1989

• F.A. Challenge Vase
  • Runners-up: 1985

• North West Counties Football League Division Two
  • Champions: 1984

[edit] 1908 foundation

• Northern Premier League Challenge Cup
  • Winners: 1971

• Lancashire Combination
  • Champions: 1924
  • Runners-up: 1934, 1935

• Lancashire Combination Cup
  • Winners: 1926, 1932, 1933, 1934
  • Runners-up: 1953, 1967

[edit] Records

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• Record Victory (since 1997 re-establishment): 13-0 v Oldham Town on 5 December 1998. North West Counties League Division Two
• Record Defeat (since 1997 re-establishment): 0-7 v Billingham Town on 15 September 2001. FA Cup first qualifying round, 2001-02
• Best League performance: Tenth in the Northern Premier League (then the fifth tier) 1968-69
• Best FA Cup performance: Second Round 2008-09
• Best FA Trophy performance: First round 1988-89, 1990-91, 1991-92
• Best FA Vase performance: Runners-up 1984-85
• Most appearances: 416 - Percy Ronson (1949-1964)

[edit] Attendances

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• Largest attendance (before 1997 re-establishment): 6,150 vs Rochdale on 13 November 1965. FA Cup first round, 1965-66
• Largest attendance (since 1997 re-establishment): 3,280 vs Hartlepool United on 29 November 2008. FA Cup second round, 2008-09
• Largest league attendance (since 1997 re-establishment): 2,666 vs Frickley Athletic on 26 April 2008. Northern Premier League Premier Division

[edit] Averages

• 2008–09: 920
• 2007–08: 721
• 2006–07: 537
• 2005–06: 466
• 2004–05: 206
• 2003–04: 134

The 2008-09 average in terms of percentage of ground capacity (which is currently given as 3,663) is 24.52%. It is a 27.6% increase over the previous seasons average attendance.

Source: English football site

[edit] Notable former players

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• Adrian Alston - Cardiff City striker with 62 caps for Australia. Captained the team during the 1974 World Cup.
• Ken Cooper - goalkeeper with Dallas Tornado in the North American Soccer League (1970-79). Twice selected for the All-Star team..
• Herbert Jones - Blackpool and Blackburn Rovers full-back. Capped six times for England.
• Peter Ollerton - striker with 31 caps for Australia. Played during the 1974 World Cup.
• Frank Swift - Manchester City goalkeeper. Capped nineteen times for England. Died in the Munich Air Disaster on 6 February 1958.
• Frank Haydock - Manchester United defender

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Fleetwood Town Official website

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